TNO and Blockchains

Blockchain technology is built on foundations of database technology, networks and distributed computing, interoperability and cryptography - all areas where TNO has a long history of expertise as well as significant contributions. In view of significant challenges to business and society, we bring our extensive expertise in business modeling, regulation and policy development.

TNO has made a significant investment in Blockchain Technologies with an emphasis on the following key areas of research and application expertise:

Business Models and Governance

Identity and Access Management

Smart Contracts interactions and security

Performance and Scalability

Interoperability and Standards

Blockchains in Society - Policy, Ethics and Regulation

Areas of application currently include logistics, banking and insurance, agriculture and supply chains, health and cybersecurity. For further details on areas of application go here.

TNO has embarked on a series of research and consultancy projects collaborating with major players within the Netherlands and internationally. Through the Dutch IT TopTeam, TNO collaborates with other research bodies and the business community to work towards the rapid adoption of Blockchain technologies. This has already led to the launch of a Dutch Blockchain Coalition (BC3), which has presented its action agenda to the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs, Henk Kamp, on 30 March 2017. Besides this TNO is also leading experiments in so-called ‘Fieldlabs’ (a good example is the Techruption Blockchain Project in Heerlen), developing knowledge, and sharing the results with all parties that might need this support in developing applications. As part of our commitment to this technology area we have created a TNO Blockchain Laboratory to coordinate and integrate the expertise and knowledge in the relevant technological areas, and to provide a key contact point for our collaborators and customers.

For more details on our current projects go here.For details on our researchers and their work on blockchains go here.